NORTH MOON

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Sanctioned tankers en route to Northern Russia

The 'North Light' and 'North Moon' have set course for far northern Russian waters. The 'North Light' left the port of Okvo on Nov 1, 2024. About two months later, they were sailing in north Norwegian waters with course for Murmansk. The ship was moored near Honningsvåg in pos. 70° 58' N 025° 46' E on Jan 29, 20225, for orders. The 'North Moon' had sailed from Anjeong on Oct 25 and was approaching Murmansk with an ETA as of Feb 3. They might also sail further east to the Ob Bay where Russia has two major LNG projects, the Yamal LNG and the Arctic LNG 2. The latter is heavily sanctioned by US and EU authorities, and all project infrastructure ships and operations are in a state of paralysis. The two LNG carriers are likely to be part of the so-called 'shadow fleet' that brings sanctioned Russian goods to international markets. The ships were built at Hanwha Ocean, the shipyard that previously was known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) along with four other tankers 'North Way', 'North Mountain', 'North Air' and 'North Sky', that have drifted around over several weeks in the Pechora Sea, since they were included in EU's latest sanctions list on Dec 17, 2024. The ships are also sanctioned by the US Treasury. The Dubai-based entity White Fox Ship Management operates the vessels, which were contracted by the DSME in 2020 in order to transport LNG for Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia.The 'North Light' and 'North Moon' are most likely part of this fleet, along with the 'North Way', 'North Mountain', 'North Air and 'North Sky'. In addition to these tankers, Novatek also signed charter contracts for 15 vessels from Russia’s Zvezda yard. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the introduction of international sanctions, the cooperation between the DSME and Novatek gradually came to a halt.